The room fell into silence.
With dreams in his heart and passion surging through his veins, Kazama Shin focused intently, following the method described in the scroll to begin extracting chakra.
Chakra was a supernatural energy formed by perfectly combining spiritual energy—tempered through training and accumulated experience—with physical energy extracted from each of the body's 130 trillion cells.
Every ninja relied on chakra to perform ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu.
…
Gradually, two to three days passed just like that.
Another morning arrived.
Dawn was approaching, and the first rays of sunlight were already eager to pierce through the fading darkness.
Inside the room, Kazama Shin sat cross-legged after another sleepless night. His face was pale, his brows tightly furrowed.
"I didn't expect this body's talent to be this terrible…"
Finally opening his eyes, he muttered bitterly.
After so many days of training, he still hadn't successfully fused chakra.
At the beginning, extracting spiritual energy according to the scroll hadn't been too difficult. But when it came to extracting physical energy, he realized just how poor this body's talent was.
The amount he could extract from each cell was pitifully small.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
Even after gritting his teeth and painstakingly extracting energy from all 130 trillion cells, when he tried to fuse it with his spiritual energy…
He discovered that the final step was even more difficult—almost impossible—due to some innate limitation.
Only then did he truly understand just how bad his ninja talent was in this world.
…
Over the past few days, he had tried countless times.
But reality kept telling Kazama Shin the same thing—his talent was simply too poor. It was as if he wasn't suited for the path of a ninja at all.
In fact, this was the fate of most ordinary civilians in Konoha.
"Damn it! How can I just live as an ordinary person?!"
"I have to succeed!"
Unwilling to accept this reality, Kazama Shin gritted his teeth.
Unlike before, when he would stop training upon exhaustion, this time he plunged himself back into chakra extraction despite his fatigue.
…
…
His already exhausted body was once again forced to extract physical energy. After so many attempts, he had become somewhat familiar with the process.
Immediately, he drew out his spiritual energy and began merging the two.
Huff!
The two forces converged within his body. Under Kazama Shin's stubborn will, they seemed on the verge of fusing—but the process was unbearably slow, like the crawl of ants, almost imperceptible.
He knew very well that his physical energy was extremely limited. If he failed to fuse chakra before it was completely depleted, all his efforts would be wasted.
And many of his previous failures had ended exactly like this.
—
"Just one more step!!!"
A fierce glint flashed in his eyes as Kazama Shin bit down hard on his lip, leaving behind a faint trace of blood.
"Fuse already!"
He let out a low roar.
Ignoring everything, he forcefully drove his spiritual energy forward, trying to forcibly merge the two.
Normally, chakra fusion happened naturally, with talent determining the speed. For geniuses, chakra could be formed almost instantly.
But now, Kazama Shin was forcing a collision.
…
All or nothing.
Boom!
The clash of energies inside his body felt like a violent chemical reaction.
"Mmgh—!"
His face turned even paler as he clenched his teeth, letting out a muffled groan. Sweat poured down his forehead.
—
The room fell silent once more.
After a long time, as sunlight streamed through the window and brought a touch of warmth, a faint voice finally broke the stillness.
"This process is really full of hardships…"
"My talent is practically that of a background extra…"
Kazama Shin opened his eyes and muttered bitterly, his body aching with exhaustion.
Who would have thought that simply extracting chakra would be this difficult?
But fortunately, a faint smile appeared on his pale face.
A gentle warmth flowed through his body, quickly easing the pain.
He raised his hand and tried to guide the warmth to his fingertips. As it gathered, a faint blue glow appeared.
That was his chakra.
"From now on, it should be much easier to extract…"
The first time was always the hardest. Once successful, it became much simpler.
"But damn… at this rate, who knows how hard it'll be for me to get stronger!!!"
"Even becoming a Genin might be a problem…"
His lips twitched. The amount of chakra he had extracted was probably far below average compared to others during their first attempt.
"So even those cannon fodder characters in the original story had decent talent…"
Now he finally understood why, in the Naruto world, some people could struggle their entire lives and still remain Genin.
"I might be the worst transmigrator ever…"
Kazama Shin thought helplessly.
"With such terrible talent and no golden finger…"
But just as that thought crossed his mind, something deep within his soul stirred, reacting to the appearance of chakra.
"This is…?"
His eyes widened as he hurriedly focused on the sensation within his soul.
And soon—
He burst out laughing.
"Hahaha… I knew it! How could a transmigrator not have a cheat ability?!"
"Hahaha…"
He couldn't help but feel ecstatic.
His golden finger had finally appeared.
"Copy Technique? I can randomly copy another person's talent or ability! Doesn't that mean I can copy ninjutsu, cultivation talent, and even Kekkei Genkai?"
"Isn't this just like the copy skill from that online game I played before transmigrating…"
"There are limitations… the target must be within a certain distance… only three uses per day… and there's a chance of failure… once successfully copied, the same target can't be copied for that ability again…"
"…That's all acceptable!"
Kazama Shin muttered to himself, his expression growing more and more excited. All the frustration and helplessness from earlier vanished without a trace.
With this kind of bug-like ability, the thing he worried about most—his talent—was no longer an issue.
So what if his body had poor talent?
In this world, there were countless people blessed with extraordinary abilities.
And most of them just happened to be in Konoha.
…
"Hehe, Kakashi Hatake is a genius…"
"And that guy Itachi is even more of a prodigy!"
"Uchiha Shisui might be even stronger… ah, this is troublesome—who should I choose first…"
Inside the room, a five-year-old child wore a foolish grin, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
Who knew what wonderful thoughts were running through his mind—he was practically drooling…